Teamwork
by Spock99
Summary: AU: Gilderoy and Karkaroff setting up traps in the maze for the third task.


**Written for the QLFC season 7 round 7**

**Prompts: Department of International Magical Cooperation: Write about two or more people from different walks of life working together in some way**

**Character: Gilderoy Lockhart**

**Word: imitation**

**Color: lemon yellow**

**Warning: AU Gilderoy is part of the Triwizard Tournament committee. He is not in St. Mungos because of his accident in book 2.**

* * *

They stood on the rain-soaked ground in front of a huge green sea of hedges. It had stopped raining just one hour ago, and the whole area was dripping with water. Gilderoy let his gaze wander over the others standing around him. Hogwarts' Heads of Houses built a firm front to his left; the French giantess and the Russian guy stayed a little further to his right. Barty Crouch and Dumbledore stood in front of them all, their backs facing the entrance of the gigantic maze. The headmaster was talking about their tasks. At least he had started with them and had lost himself in a vast amount of Dos and Don'ts and safety measures.

Gilderoy crossed his arms over his chest and lowered his head to look at the ground beneath his feet, glaring at how mud was spoiling his golden boots. His bright, lemon-yellow robes set a big contrast to the dark, muddy ground. Bored out of his mind, the blond man lightly tapped the tip of his already-soiled boot on the surface of a puddle to his feet. Mesmerized, he watched the tiny waves he produced with the motion. The quiet _tap tap tap_ his sole made when connecting with the water made him smile.

Suddenly, there was a weird silence surrounding Gilderoy that made him look up. The very instant his eyes lifted to the face of Albus Dumbledore, Gilderoy knew he himself was the cause of it. It seemed like he had been playing with the puddle for much longer than he had thought.

To take some of the awkwardness from the situation, Gilderoy flashed one of his white-toothed, winning, Lockhart-smiles.

"Well…" he started in his best self-confident voice, looking from one of his companions to the other.

It was the headmaster who answered a second later.

"I just mentioned that you should go into the maze in pairs, Gilderoy," the ancient wizard let him know. Oh, joy. Into that monstrous green beast together with one of the others. Minerva didn't like him when he was a teacher two years ago, Snape… well, Snape was Snape. Pomona would probably cuddle him to death. No, that was unfair. She was a nice woman and most likely the person he would want to go into the maze with the most.

As long as he wasn't paired up with the giantess or the Russian, Hungarian, Bulgarian, whatever guy, everything was fine.

"So listen you all," Dumbledore raised his voice to get their attention, "Minerva with Madame Maxime, Snape, and Filius, Pomona comes with me, and Gilderoy will go with Igor. You all know what to do. Give those champions something to think on, to test their skills on and hinder their way to the cup, but within reason, mind."

If Gilderoy hadn't still been smiling like a loon, he would have stomped his foot in frustration. But, at the moment, his brain and muscles were occupied keeping the radiant smile from falling into a grimace worth an angry hippogriff.

He raised his eyes to the sky in a mix of eye-rolling and asking whoever might listen for help, but the only thing that happened was a very grumpy Igor Karkaroff stomping towards him, bumping his shoulder hard and disappearing into the maze. So, the feeling of dislike was mutual. That was an indication for a perfect working ground.

Preserving his last thread of dignity, Gilderoy took his time to look after the other man. Then he turned back to the others and threw them one of his famous smiles, held up his hands in an 'I can't explain it' gesture, and started walking towards the entrance, too—not before throwing his left arm into the folds of his robe to make the bright lemon-yellow fabric swirl around him in a dramatic way, though, of course.

As soon as he was out of sight, Gilderoy sped up his steps and took out his wand. Where was that Hungarian bastard? How dare he go ahead alone without waiting, leaving Gilderoy to stand there.

Huffing in anger, the yellow-clad wizard took the first path to his right and stomped along it. The hedges to his sides rustling creepily, whispering words of fear and disorientation. Gilderoy sped up more just to stop a few meters further in a dead-end, so he turned back to take another passage.

A few steps into the new path, there suddenly rose a thick white fog around Lockhart. It was cold and made his hair and robes clammy with dampness. Gilderoy gripped his wand tighter and stalked on. After what felt like hours, he reached the next junction and stopped to contemplate on where to go next.

He whispered a quick-drying charm to make his robes light and fluttery again. The very moment he decided where to go, a hand clamped down on his right shoulder and spun him around. Gilderoy was just able to whip up his wand in time to poke it into the face of his attacker. Before him stood no other than Igor Karkaroff, scowling fiercely, huffing at the blond wizard.

"There you are, you canary," Igor growled and let his hand fall from Gilderoy's shoulder as if he had touched something disgusting. Gilderoy matched Igor's action and brushed off his shoulder to get off the imaginary filth of the Russian-Ex Death Eater from his bright robes.

"Come!" Karkaroff growled and stomped off into the foggy passage. Gilderoy huffed and stalked into a different direction on purpose.

"I already was in there, Karkaroff!" he hollered behind the other man and continued his track. There was no answer, and when after a few meters some huge snake appeared in front of Lockhart, the question of which direction was answered.

Facing a giant black cobra wasn't one of the things Gilderoy liked to do in his free time. Blushing slightly, the lemon-yellow clad figure turned around and ran after the Bulgarian wizard. He reached the other man a few moments later and stopped his run to a leisurely pace.

He smiled and began playing with his wand in his hand.

"Well, my friend. What do we do now?" he said, stressing on the word 'friend'.

Igor threw a dirty look over his shoulder and sent a red jet of light to the ground where the hedges met the earth.

Visibly, there was no change at all. Curiosity winning him over, Gilderoy asked: "What did you do to that hedge?"

Karkaroff merely grunted and walked on. The moment Gilderoy passed the spot where Igor's spell had hit, a root shot out from under the hedge and wrapped itself around Gilderoy's ankle. He looked down in surprise, and the next moment he found himself sitting on the muddy ground, his lemon-yellow robes splattered with specks of damp mud.

"What…?" he yelled at the Hungarian wizard, a scowl growing on his face. "Do you know what those robes cost?"

Karkaroff turned around, and for the first time since the two of them had met, a smile spread across his features. Then he broke out into hearty laughter. The sight of the younger man sitting in the mud, flushed from surprise and anger was just too funny.

Gilderoy used his wand to cut the root around his ankle and stood up. He tried brushing off his robes but his dirty hands only made it more filthy.

His face became an angry shade of red, and with his wand drawn once more, the blond wizard stomped over to Karkaroff. On his way he did a more or less correct imitation of Igor's spell, sending the jet of light next to the other man's feet to the border of the hedge and the ground.

At once, several roots shot out and wrapped themselves around Karkaroff's feet and shins. Then, they started pulling.

The Bulgarian headmaster cursed in all colors of the rainbow as he tried to cut the sturdy bindings. With a wet sound, he crushed to the ground where more lianas shot out from under the hedge and pulled harder.

Soon, the dark-haired man was on his way under the hedge. His wand lay forgotten in the middle of the path while Karkaroff fought to get the dangerous bindings off his upper body and neck.

All his attempts were in vain, though. He started to scream for help but no one except Gilderoy could hear him. Blond hair disheveled, he stood by the other man and watched in horror as the hedge swallowed the other man. All that remained from the Bulgarian guy was his wand on the ground and some disrupted leaves next to the spot where Karkaroff had disappeared.

When Igor didn't resurface, Gilderoy did the first thing that came to his mind. He shot red sparks into the sky and hoped for someone to see them and come for help.

How long he had stood there, he didn't know. But some time later, Dumbledore and Minerva came running at top speed towards him. They only needed Gilderoy's fingerpointing lamely under the hedge and his stammered explanation to understand. With a complicated movement of his wand, Albus Dumbledore vanished the part of the hedge that had swallowed Karkaroff. Within minutes the poor man was rescued.

Stumbling, Igor came to his feet and leaned heavily on the headmaster.

"What happened?" Albus asked as he gave Igor back his wand. That question was the trigger Gilderoy needed to get his mind working again. If Albus found out that his spell had done this…

Lockhart stepped near Karkaroff in a pretended gesture of concern and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Are you ok?" he asked. On the front, a tentative smile graced his lips, but behind his back, there was Gilderoy's wand at the ready. The time Igor needed to process the question was all the blond wizard needed.

A wordless "Obliviate!" erased all memory of the incident from Igor Karkaroff's mind. With that spell, Gilderoy had always been great. Minerva and Dumbledore hadn't noticed the little spell. Perfect.

When Igor's gaze became focused again, Gilderoy asked again: "Are you well, my friend?" And to everyone's satisfaction, Igor nodded slowly.

Gilderoy straightened his back with pride. Teamwork could be something he was good at after all.


End file.
